Private Lives

‘Just sign them,’ said Graham quietly.

‘I can’t,’ she replied, closing her eyes, feeling utterly helpless. This was everything she’d ever worked for, and now she was supposed to just sign it all away, surrender her livelihood and her reputation with one sweep of a pen. And yet Larry had made the alternatives very clear indeed. Being struck off the solicitor’s roll, perhaps a spell in an open prison somewhere, spending her days reminiscing with all the other unlucky lags who had pushed the boat out too far.

Graham walked over and handed her the pen, then put his steady hands on her shoulders and waited as she scratched out a signature. First on the letter of resignation from the partnership, then on the transfer of her equity share to Larry.

She dropped the pen on the oak top and turned into his arms, burying her face in his shoulder.

She had told Graham everything, of course. Well, almost everything. Not the real reason why Simon Cooper had been so persuasive in getting Helen to help him bury the Amy Hart story, although she suspected that he had known of their affair all along. He stroked her hair gently.

‘Just let it go,’ he soothed. ‘Everything will be all right. Just the two of us. It’s only a setback. You’re down, darling, but you’re never out. You’re a brilliant woman who can turn her hand to anything. And truthfully, you were always bigger than Donovan Pierce anyway.’

For a moment she almost believed him. For years she had been so disparaging of anything that came out of her husband’s mouth, and yet now his words of reassurance were the only thing she wanted to hear.

She breathed him in, the soft smell of his pyjamas, and knew she could never leave him.

‘You’re right,’ she said, looking out into the sunshine again. ‘It’s not over, not by a long chalk. In fact, I’ve got a feeling this is just the beginning.’

71

Anna had never really realised how wealthy Andy’s family were until she went out to Villa Sole for the first time. At the start of their relationship, when Andy had spoken about his family’s summer place in Tuscany, she had imagined a rambling farmhouse with delphinium-blue shutters and broken flowerpots. But Villa Sole was truly magnificent, a whitewashed Italianate stately home with tall windows and pillared gables, at once both grand and chic.

‘Bloody hell,’ said Matt as their stubby Fiat hire car turned on to the arrow-straight drive. ‘It’s like a palace.’ Anna felt her heart give a flutter. Although the summer sun had toasted the surrounding hillsides a deep ochre, the grounds of Villa Sole looked just as luscious as they had when she and Andy had come here to kiss in the poppy fields and swim in the river. It was like seeing an old lover across a room.

‘Are you sure this is his family’s place, not a five-star hotel?’ said Matt as they drew up outside the entrance. ‘No wonder he pulled so many birds at college.’

‘You knew Andy at Cambridge?’ said Anna, her eyes wide. ‘How come you haven’t mentioned this before?’

‘Never really knew him.’ Matt shrugged. ‘He was the year ahead of me. But he certainly had a reputation as a ladies’ man.’

‘Well he never used to boast about this place,’ said Anna, suddenly feeling protective of Andy. Matt gave her a smirk.

‘Not to you, maybe.’

‘What does that mean?’

‘Well you’re not the sort of girl to be impressed by fancy trimmings, are you?’

Anna looked at him sideways.

‘Should I take that as a compliment?’

Matt chuckled. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘Definitely a compliment.’

Anna laughed. She had been surprised at how well she and Matt had got on. She had been nervous about bringing him – in fact she had woken up kicking herself – but away from the office, they had fallen into the sort of flirtatious banter you usually only had with people you’d known for years. They seemed to share a similarly dry sense of humour, and on the two-hour f

light over they had giggled constantly, chatting away without mentioning work, Helen or the Amy Hart story once. In fact it had been like a first date: finding out about each other’s lives and interests, swapping funny stories. They had quite a lot in common, mutual friends, and had even lived on the same street when they were at Guildford College of Law, albeit four or five years apart.

‘Anna!’

She turned to see her father running down the steps, his arms open. He scooped her up and hugged her, squashing her face against his shoulder, and any last doubts she had harboured about coming to the wedding immediately evaporated.

‘So you’re pleased to see me, then?’ she said happily when her dad had finally released his grip.

‘When you said you were coming we were thrilled,’ he said quietly. ‘Thank you. Really.’

Anna was moved by the intensity of his words, and she realised with a flush of shame just how important it had been to him. How could she even have considered letting him down?

‘Darling, you’re here!’ cried her mother, giving Anna an uncharacteristically warm embrace.